We have started the Quilotoa Loop on our bikes

What amazing last three days we have had!!!


The day after our fiesta time we went to a place called Mitad del Mundo, situated just in in the Ecuator but before we got there we experienced more of the Ecuatorian kindness we are meeting everywhere, on the way to the bus (we are fast becoming experts in the Quito public transport) we came accross a carpentry which acted like a magnet for Kath - the carpenters there invited us in and were so proud to show all the machinery and the hand tools to Kath who was drooling at the sight of saw dust and carpenty stuff - they wanted to show her the carpentry when it was at work happy to have met a carpenter from the other side of the world totally interested in them and their work.

We wanted to combine this tourist trip with some training by walking down to the bottom of a volcano crater - the Pululahua crater one of the only two inhabited craters in the world. This is the sight that greeted us when we got to the edge of the crater we were about to climb down, you could see the fields in the floor of the crater with the mist coverng them and then uncovering then like playing hide and seek.


It was a steep climb down but so beautiful - orchids growing in trees and the most amazing wild flowers, when we got to the bottom a local woman was working her fields of corn - there are only 25 people living in the crater and the majority are quite old, young families with children have left for the city and some young people are working very hard at keeping the crater alive - apparently it has been populated since pre-incaic times.

After the crater we had to play at being tourists so we went to the Inti Ñam nmuseum were the real (GPS) centre of the world is and of course the photo was due!! In addition to being real tourists we learned about solar clocks, water going down on straight line down the plug hole and the earth energy as well as the tradition of having our head shrunk being an honour  and how to do the process - we also learned that the tradition was only stopped in 1970


They are closing this Internet place so mañana more....